CYIL Vol. 7, 2016

CYIL 7 ȍ2016Ȏ PRINCIPLES OF THE CHARTER OF THE UNITED NATIONS ȃ JUS COGENS ? PRINCIPLES OF THE CHARTER OF THE UNITED NATIONS – JUS COGENS ?

Ernest Petrič

Abstract: The author deals with the general problems of jus cogens , its nature, its place and function in the international legal order. He departs in his analyses from art. 53 VC IT and concludes that a norm to be a jus cogens should acquire general “consent” which should reach beyond consent of State only, and the norm should protect an important value (“content”) at our stage of development of human society. Next he exposes to these criteria the basic principles of the UN Charter and suggest that they, confirming to both criteria could be accepted as norms/principles of contemporary jus cogens . Resumé: Autor se v článku zabývá obecnými problémy jus cogens , jeho povahou, místem a funkcí v mezinárodněprávním řádu. Odchyluje se přitom ve své analýze od čl. 53 Vídeňské úmluvy o smluvním právu a dochází k závěru, že norma, aby měla povahu jus cogens , by měla získat obecný „souhlas“, který by měl přesahovat pouze souhlas státu, a taková norma by měla současně chránit důležitou hodnotu („obsah“) na daném stupni vývoje lidské společnosti. Dále autor používá tato kritéria na základní principy Charty OSN a naznačuje, že splňují obě tato kritéria, a proto by mohly být přijaté jako normy / zásady současného jus cogens . Key words: jus cogens ; basic principles of international law; UN Charter; consent; content, international legal order. On the Author: Prof. Dr. Ernest Petrič is professor of international law at the European Faculty of Law, Ljubljana, Slovenia. Member of ILC and its former chairman. Judge of Constitutional court of the Republic of Slovenia. Former State secretary of the MFA of Slovenia and ambassador/permanent representative to USA, India, Austria, UN-New York, IAEA. Introduction People have lived for about three generations in the period that has known the “United Nations”, i.e. in the international community that emerged from the ruins left after both World Wars and was formally established 70 years ago when the Charter of the United Nations came into force. This new international order, based on new principles of international law and with institutions that had never existed before, certainly did not emerge overnight. The transition from the world order that was in fact still based on the Peace of Westphalia, which was established during and after the 30 Years’ War in the 17 th century, via the world order based on the system of the Holy Alliance and the Great Powers constituting the Concert of Europe, to the

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